Page 2 - Having trouble installing BIND on windows?

We've solved to the problem! Thx. However, I'm running a similar system as you, I believe Anthlon 1800, but now it runs really slow. Is this normal? I have 512 DDR

Also, my goal is host my website, www.reviewsweekly.com from home computer. And first step is setting up my DNS server, I have simple question. does my server have to be named "something".reviewsweekly.com, or can it be anything i want? Also, do I need a slave DNS server since everything will be hosted from my PC?

I've heard reports of Athlon 1800 XP's being really slow. I haven't complained about my computer though. I have 1.5 gig of pc2100 DDR. ;-P

If you own another domain, you can use anything for the dns server's domain. Otherwise, it has to be a host of the domain you're hosting.

You don't ever HAVE to have a slave. You can set in registrar's that require 2 dns IP's the same IP for both. Having a slave is just recommended so that if service is interupted in the master, queries can be made to the slave. Keep in mind that the higher you set your TTL in dns records, the fewer queries will be made to your server, and the less of a problem interuptions of service would be.

Okay, I've got all my books, and resources, and I'm readyt to get started. However, I'm asked for IP addresses for things I don't. So my question is, do I register a DNS server before I even set it up? If so, seeing that my site is www.reviewsweekly.com and I don't host another domain: ns1.reviewsweekly.com & ns2.reviewsweekly.com, would good choices?

yep. Just create 2 NS records in your zone and make one ns1 and the other ns2 and set both to the same IP if you don't have a slave server. It doesn't matter if you setup the DNS server before or after you register it.

okay, I'm getting a little confused. So I need to recap. My goal is host my website from home computer. The solution is a process:

1.) Setup A DNS server
a.) register
b.) configure
2.) Setup A web server
a.) register
b.) configure

or

1.) Register Web Server & DNS server
2.) Setup and configure web and DNS server

if solution 2 is the best, when and how I do I register my web server if it isn't set up? Also, I am assuming that after registering these things, the registrar will give my IP addresses for each, correct?

Have you guys come across BIND-PE? Takes about a minute to install and configure your own caching nameserver on windows (not to detract from the fun you're having hacking away at it ) I've not actually tried hosting domains on windows, but shouldn't imagine it's too hard - BIND-PE gives you a running start.

Regards your last post js411js, just do as silentrage says and create the SOA record for the zone and add two NS records for ns1 and ns2.

A sample zone file looks something like:


(this was for BIND 8)

Once you've done that, register 'example.com' and set the nameservers (at your registrar) to:

ns1.example.com -> <insert ip address of ns1 here>

'ns2.example.com -> <insert ip address of ns2 here>'

If you only have a single IP address you can always point your secondary nameserver to a third party dns provider like ns1.everydns.net and then make sure you duplicate your zone file setup on http://www.everydns.net .

To: Munkfish

Yes, I've tried BIND-PE, it was easier to get started. However, it's not fully functionally or designed for web hosting, at least that's what I believed the site state info about the product. Also, now that I'm started with BIND i'd rather just keep on plugging away.

To: Silentrage

okay, here is how i've plotted out my named.conf file & my zone file.

named.conf

# Use with the following in named.conf, adjusting the allow list as needed:
key "rndc-key" {
algorithm hmac-md5;
secret "BYxdhFXWKq8tVraZSNdf8w==";
};

controls {
inet 127.0.0.1 port 953
allow { 127.0.0.1; } keys { "rndc-key"; };
};
# End of named.conf

options {
# Set the working directory from which all relative paths are based

directory "/WINDOWS/system32/dns/etc/";

# Change default to 'no' cause I don't have other server

notify no;
};

# create logging file
logging {
channel query_logging {
file "/WINDOWS/system32/dns/log/dns.log"
versions 3 size 100M;
print-time yes; // timestamp log entries
};
category queries {
query_logging;
};
category lame-servers { null; };
};

# Specify the root name servers
zone "." IN {
type hint;
file "root.hint";
};

# creating master name server for reviewsweekly.com
zone "reviewsweekly.com" {
type master;
file "reviewsweekly.com.zone";
};

reviewsweekly.com.zone

@ IN SOA ns1 (
webmaster
2003062500
1h
15m
30d
1h)

IN NS ns1.reviewsweekly.com.
IN NS ns2.reviewsweekly.com.

has this been setup correctly thus far, excluding the addition of a mail record?

I don't know if it is required, but I would insert a $ORIGIN at the beginning of your zone file. That way all relative domains in the file will have the $ORIGIN appended.

Another note, the comment in your named.conf says:

# creating master name server for reviewsweekly.com

That does not create a master name server. What it is doing is telling BIND the location of a zone file for one of the root domains your server hosts. Then, it says the file is a "master file" which tells BIND how to parse/use it. Then it says where to find the file, based on your relative directory.

I don't know how much you know about master files, but all domains that end with a period is absolute and the $ORIGIN is not appended. All domains that do not end with a period has the $ORIGIN appended.

Another quickie note. If you changed the line in your named.conf to this:

zone "reviewsweekly.com" IN {

Then you no longer need to specify IN in the master file.

Just FYI on this one.... This entire section:

# Use with the following in named.conf, adjusting the allow list as needed:
key "rndc-key" {
algorithm hmac-md5;
secret "BYxdhFXWKq8tVraZSNdf8w==";
};

controls {
inet 127.0.0.1 port 953
allow { 127.0.0.1; } keys { "rndc-key"; };
};
# End of named.conf

does not need to be in the named.conf file. Without it the server will listen on all interfaces on the default port you have above. Also, the rndc key will be read from rndc.key and so the key in the named.conf is redundant.

Ok, that was in response to your last question, this is in response to the earlier one.

The registrar does not care about your webserver. If for some oddball reason it cares, tell it you don't have a webserver, that it should leave your webserver alone (a.k.a. no web forwarding).

The registrar does not care if your DNS server is already setup and configured. As long as it knows where the DNS server is, and what zone(s) it hosts, it doesn't matter.

When you register the zone and give the registrar the IP's to your DNS server, all requests headed for *.reviewsweekly.com will be referred to the domains and IP's of the DNS servers you provided for the registrar. At this point the dns resolver or client will be asking your server directly for information. It is YOU who control what hosts are hosted for your zone and what IP addresses everything has.

Understand? That is why the DNS registrar does not care if you have a webserver or not. All requests for www.reviewsweekly.com is referred to your DNS server. Then the dns server can tell the resolver or client whatever IP it wants associated with www. Then the browser will connect to that IP directly. It doesn't need the registrar to do anything after it referred it to you.

Okay, so I've registered ns1 & ns2 but where do all of these IP addresses come from? Thus far I have no IP address for my site that I know of, no IP address for my DNS server, the only IP addresses I believe that I have is the one provided by my ISP for internet usage, do I ever use that?

finally, if it is I who controls what IP addresses things I have, am I just making them up, and how do I stop myself from giving my site the same IP addresses another site or computer?

heh, you can make up the hostnames under your zone but not the IP address. If you host the webserver and you host the DNS server yourself, then everything has the same IP address - the IP address your ISP gave you.

Okay, I've taken into consideration the alterations that you and munkfish have suggested and came up with the following.

named.conf

options {
# Set the working directory from which all relative paths are based

directory "/WINDOWS/system32/dns/etc/";

# Change default to 'no' cause I don't have other server

notify no;
};

# create logging file
logging {
channel query_logging {
file "/WINDOWS/system32/dns/log/dns.log"
versions 3 size 100M;
print-time yes; // timestamp log entries
};
category queries {
query_logging;
};
category lame-servers { null; };
};

# Specify the root name servers
zone "." IN {
type hint;
file "root.hint";
};

# creating master file for reviewsweekly.com
zone "reviewsweekly.com" IN {
type master;
file "reviewsweekly.com.zone";
};

reviewsweekly.com.zone

@ SOA ns1 (
webmaster ; email
2003062500 ; serial code
1h ; retry
15m ; expire
30d ; minimum ttl
1h)

;
;NS Records
;
NS ns1.reviewsweekly.com.
NS ns2.reviewsweekly.com.

;
;Host Records
;

@ A 65.37.17.80
ns1 A 65.37.17.80
ns2 A 65.37.17.80

;
; Mail Records
;

@ MX 10 mail.reviewsweekly.com.


Let me know what you think.

Also:

From what I have read I thought that @ ment "current orgin", which was provided by the zone statement. Also, I thought that "things" without periods would have the orgine appened automatically.

@ does specify the current origin. And it doesn't matter if a domain has periods in it. If it doesn't END with a period then the origin is appended. I've written up a zone file as an example of how I would've organized it. It has a correction in the comments about the SOA record and added a www host, and offered a couple options for your mail domain.

[link removed: see: http://www.dollardns.net/bind/]

Thank you for helping me to get my DNS server setup.

Now that I have my DNS setting set. How do I get my site up, I have apache installed, and I'm assuming that I would have it listen on for my ISP provided IP address on port 80.